DENVER – A Denver-based grassroots group will launch ConsumerEnergyChoice.com Friday promoting a measure on the November ballot restoring the right of utility customers to choose between affordable traditional or higher-priced experimental energy sources. Western Tradition Partnership and its citizen allies and will begin collecting the 76,000 ballot signatures to place it on the ballot.

“Voters don’t like the fact environmentalists lied to them and set up a no-choice, no-competition market tilted to more expensive energy,” said Dan Fuchs, WTP Director of Government Relations and a former Montana state legislator. “We’re looking forward to collecting signatures above and beyond what we need, and then let the people decide. This is not the year you want to be on the side of mandate-happy politicians and their backroom deals.”

“When consumers can freely choose their energy in an open market, everyone wins,” said Fuchs. “Opposing consumer choice only leads to higher prices, less efficient energy and backroom deals for connected lobbyists. People should choose their energy, not politicians.”

The “Consumer Choice in Energy” initiative was submitted by Parker resident Bob Kennedy and Greeley resident Kent Overturf. Western Tradition Partnership (WTP,) a Denver-based citizens’ grassroots group promoting affordable energy, property rights and job security in the West, has been drafting the ballot language for a year and is working with citizens to pass it.

If approved, the initiative allows utility’s customers to submit a petition requesting an election among customers on whether to opt out of so-called “renewable energy standards, a right promised to voters as a condition of Amendment 37, passed by a narrow 52 to 48 percent margin in 2004. It required many Colorado utilities to get three percent of their electricity from renewable energy resources by 2007 and ten percent by 2015 and won passage after voters were assured price increased would be capped and customers could vote to opt their utility out of the system. Soon after, environmentalists pressured legislators to hike the price cap, increase the renewable standard and eliminate the right of consumers to opt out.

“The Constitution absolutely prohibits any form of government gun control. No question. No doubt. No compromise,” said Donny Ferguson, Western Tradition Partnership’s National Director of Media and Public Relations, and a former Oklahoma City resident. “The federal government has no business regulating guns that never cross state lines. Federal gun grabbers violate your property rights and right to freely access public lands for hunting and shooting.”

WTP will begin contacting Oklahoma legislators urging them to overturn Henry’s veto and determining which legislative districts to target with citizen education campaigns. The group filed an amicus brief Monday in Montana federal court backing that state’s Firearms Freedom Act, sponsored by state Rep. Joel Boniek (R-Livingston) which started the “firearms freedom” legislative movement.

While WTP does not advocate the election or defeat of candidates, candidates who oppose WTP’s agenda of affordable energy, property rights and free markets find it difficult to win election. In 2009, the mayor and mayor pro tem of Longmont, Colorado lost by wide margins, along with an environmentalist-supported city council candidate, after opposing WTP’s efforts to protect property rights in the city. Two “green” ballot initiatives predicted to easily pass were also defeated by the same Boulder County voters.

In 2008, two Garfield County Commission candidates who attacked WTP’s advocacy of responsible energy development in their Colorado county were defeated by voters. That year Montana voters the defeated environmentalist-backed candidate in fourteen of nineteen state legislative districts targeted by WTP education efforts, flipping control of the state senate to Republicans.

WTP is also currently pursuing a lawsuit against Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock for enforcing prohibitions on independent campaign expenditures by employers, as well as proposing a Colorado ballot initiative allowing consumers to opt out of a state law requiring them to buy renewable energy.

Western Tradition Partnership is a 501(c)(4) grassroots lobbying organization dedicated to fighting environmental extremism and promoting responsible development and management of land, water, and natural resources. For more information, go to http://www.westerntradition.org. For more information on this issue, or to schedule an interview, contact Donny Ferguson at 703-200-3669 or donny.f@westerntradition.org.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar was asked in a Feb. 26, 2010, letter from Western Caucus Chairman Rep. Rob Bishop, R-UT, and other representatives from western states for the missing pages from a leaked government memo that “contained detailed information about the administration’s plans to designate as many as 14 new national monuments and lock up as much as 13 million acres in states throughout the West.”

Bishop and his colleagues asked Salazar to provide the missing pages by March 26, or a month after their letter went to the Interior chief. More than two months later and Bishop has received exactly nothing from Salazar in response to the February 26 request… [DF notes: WTP also filed a FOIA request for the information Mar. 11. We have not received a response.]

…Salazar was asked about the leaked memo during a recent Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing and responded only by saying “there’s no hidden agenda on the part of my department.”

That elicited the obvious response from Bishop, who now asks “if there is no hidden agenda then why do these documents, which are public information, remain under lock and key? Unfortunately for Secretary Salazar, this is where the rubber meets the road, and once again, his rhetoric fails to match reality.”

Hastings has filed a bill, H. Res. 1254, forcing Salazar to reveal the hidden documentoutlining the Obama administrations plans to grab millions of acres without a congressional vote or even a review. The bill will be considered in a May 5 House Natural Resources Committee hearing.

Click here to find out what you can do to help WTP force the Obama administration to reveal its land grabbing plot.

BILLINGS – Montana’s largest property rights organization filed an amicus brief Monday supporting the Montana Shooting Sports Association’s lawsuit validating the state’s Firearms Freedom Act. Sponsored by state Rep. Joel Boniek (R-Livingston) and passed into law in 2009, the legislation declares any gun made and sold within a state’s borders is exempt from federal gun control under Congress’ authority to regulate interstate commerce.

“The Constitution absolutely prohibits any form of government gun control,” said Dan Fuchs, Western Tradition Partnership’s Director of Government Relations and a former Montana state legislator. “WTP is proud to join MSSA in protecting your rights to hunt and access public lands, which are threatened by gun grabbers.”

The brief was filed Monday in United States District Court District Of Montana by attorney Jim Brown. This is not WTP’s first foray into opposing gun control. WTP’s Director of Grassroots Coalitions Tim Ravndal organized opposition to a February proposal by the Fish, Parks and Wildlife Commission banning lead shot for upland game bird hunting in the Freezeout Lake and Canyon Ferry wildlife management areas. Inundated by citizen opposition, the commission dismissed the proposal on a 3-2 vote.

Western Tradition Partnership is a 501(c)(4) grassroots lobbying organization dedicated to fighting environmental extremism and promoting responsible development and management of land, water, and natural resources in the Rocky Mountain West and across the United States. For more information, go to http://www.westerntradition.org.

Will you hold Barack Obama accountable for his latest multi-million acre land grab scheme?

On Mar. 11, WTP Director of Grassroots Coalitions Tim Ravndal filed a formal Freedom of Information Act request with the Obama administration seeking documents relating to a plan uncovered by Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT) in which the administration would issue a torrent of “national monuments” designations for millions of acres of the West.

The partial documents were published by The New York Times and uncover a radical plan for the federal governemnt to lock up vast portions of the West using a 1906 law intended to protect small, individual prehistoric Indian sites from looters.

The idea is to begin the shut-down of the timber and energy industries by cutting off the domestic supply of timber and minerals.

National monument designations do not require the approval of Congress, do not require the designated land to actually be worthy of national monument designation and are a favorite tool of radical environmentalists to place valuable natural resources off-limits.

Congressman Doc Hastings (R-WA) has introduced H.R. 1254, which would require the Obama administration to release all documents relating to its strategy of using “national monument” designation to place millions of acres of the West off-limits to humans.

The House Natural Resources Committee will vote on HR 1254 in its meeting Wednesday, May 5th. The Democrat leadership is strong-arming members to kill it.

Can I count on you to do two things?

1) Call your member of the House at 202-224-3121 and tell him or her to cosponsor Doc Hastings’ House Resolution 1254. Tell them it simply asks the Obama administration to be up-front and transparent about what it is planning.

In a letter released Saturday Graham announced he would not take part in negotiations to revise a “cap and trade” bill imposing federal taxes and fees on energy because Senate Democrats planned to vote on an immigration bill before his national energy tax. Just a few votes short of passage, the revisions to national energy tax bill were set to be unveiled Monday.

“Lindsey Graham not only wants a national energy tax, he’s throwing a tantrum because he can’t have it now,” said Donny Ferguson, WTP National Director of Media and Public Relations.

“Lindsey Graham’s national energy tax makes driving and using electricity too expensive for you,” said Ferguson. “Apparently Graham thinks electricity should only be used to air big-money ads from his radical green friends.”

“When your support is funded by George Soros and bought by Barack Obama’s spin doctors, South Carolinians know whose side you’re on, Senator Graham. And it’s not theirs,” said Ferguson.

Graham was working with Sens. John Kerry (D-MA) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) on a “climate change” bill imposing a federally-set price on carbon dioxide created by employers and taxing it. While no final language has been settled on, Graham is pressuring the petrochemical industry to agree to a “fuel fee” that would drive up the cost of gasoline, and all products, in exchange for exemption from the “cap” on carbon dioxide.

While WTP does not advocate the election or defeat of candidates, candidates who oppose WTP’s agenda of affordable energy, property rights and free markets find it difficult to win election. In 2009, the mayor and mayor pro tem of Longmont, Colorado lost by wide margins, along with an environmentalist-supported city council candidate, after opposing WTP’s efforts to protect property rights in the city. Two “green” ballot initiatives predicted to easily pass were also defeated by the same Boulder County voters. In 2008, two Garfield County Commission candidates who attacked WTP’s advocacy of responsible energy development in their Colorado county were defeated by voters. That year Montana voters the defeated environmentalist-backed candidate in fourteen of nineteen state legislative districts targeted by WTP education efforts, flipping control of the state senate to Republicans.

WTP is also currently pursuing a lawsuit against Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock for enforcing prohibitions on independent campaign expenditures by employers, as well as proposing a Colorado ballot initiative allowing consumers to opt out of a state law requiring them to buy renewable energy.

“WTP is not afraid to ‘speak truth to power,’ whether you’re a mayor, governor, attorney general, or a U.S. senator intent on destroying jobs and sending utility bills skyrocketing,” said Ferguson. “We fight and defeat radical environmentalism.”

Blogger FITSNews.com reveals left-wing environmentalist groups are bankrolling ads in South Carolina backing Graham’s radical green agenda, including one ad buy of $10,000 alone. The ads are purchased by GMMB, a Washington, D.C. media broker that advises President Barack Obama. Three of the groups bankrolling pro-Graham ads are:

* “Republicans for Environmental Protection,” which is connected to a George Soros donor fund that provides “fiscal sponsorship for progressive groups,”
* The “Clean Energy Fund,” which lists radical left-wing groups like the Sierra Student Coalition, Live Earth, Climate Protection Action Fund, Alliance for Climate Protection and Green Faith among its member organizations,
* “Truman National Security Project,” whose board of directors and executive staff of the are linked to groups such as the Progressive Policy Institute, the Open Society Institute and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

WTP is a fast-growing, grassroots-supported non-profit organization advocating rational, responsible natural resource development and land use policy. For more information, go to http://www.westerntradition.org. For more information on this issue, or to schedule an interview, contact Donny Ferguson at 703-200-3669 or at donny.f@westerntradition.org.

Join ATP, Stop Gang Green!

American Tradition Partnership (ATP) is a no-compromise grassroots organization dedicated to fighting the radical environmentalist agenda. We support responsible development of natural resources and rational land use and management policies. Only together can we protect access, private property rights, and affordable energy for all Americans!